Author Archives: Guido
Cannibal Slayer – Pat O’Brien joins Slayer
Pat O’Brien, lead guitarist of Cannibal Corpse, is going to replace Gary Holt of Exodus, who replaced Jeff Hanneman in Slayer. Wait, what?
As we reported last month, Gary Holt of Exodus replaced Jeff Hanneman for a couple of Slayer shows because Hanneman got ill after being bitten by a spider. Holt isn’t going to stay forever, because, you know, he’s the main force of Exodus so he’s got to go back to his guys. That means that Slayer are left with only Kerry King to play guitars and HOLY SHIT! We don’t want that. And apparently the guys in Slayer didn’t want that either so they called Pat O’Brien.
Cannibal Corpse and Pat O’Brien slay so it’s a natural fit. Check out the dates that Holt and O’Brien are going to play with Slayer after the jump.
Nergal is back
We’re really happy to report that Adam “Nergal” Darski, frontman, lead vocalist, guitarist and manager of Behemoth, who has been diagnosed with leukemia in August of last year, is doing good and already planning to hit the road with Behemoth again.
“We want to start rehearsing in, say, six weeks. We’ll be rehearsing all the songs, jam out, and we want to be ready for some shows in a few months. We want to do first shows in Poland in October. I know it’s still six months away, but we’re gonna fuckin’ do it. I am sure about it. It’s been three months since the transplant now, and [my improvement] has been huge. So in three more months, I’ll be ready for it.”
Read the full interview here.
That sounds incredible but that’s what Behemoth’s music was always all about; staying strong and not letting anyone or anything put you down.
To help you gap the wait for Behemoth to tour again, view a live video of ‘At The Left Hand Ov God’ after the jump.
Thrash ’til Death – Big Four times four, part 3
I feel like I’m repeating myself when I’m saying that I love Thrash Metal but it’s the honest to Satan’s truth.
This is the third edition of Thrash ’til Death, where I’m basically listing my favorite thrash bands. Four bands a time, each led by a genuine Big Four band, you should know the deal by now. Make the jump to read on.
Tuesday Trivia: A curse that went from theater to metal
Have you ever heard of The Scottish Play? It’s a name for William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Why would anyone want to call it the Scottish Play instead of Macbeth? Well, the reason is as simple as interesting: according to a theatrical superstition, called the Scottish Curse, speaking the name Macbeth inside a theater will cause disaster. Actors got hurt and even killed and people attributed that to the curse.
What does that have to do with metal? Well, there’s a German band called Macbeth (there are actually two German bands called Macbeth but I’m talking about the Heavy Metal band, not the Power Metal band) and when you’re reading the band’s biography, it just seems like the poor guys are cursed.
The band was formed in East Germany in 1985. They were one of the first metal bands from the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and the authorities weren’t fans of the band, to put it nicely. At a concert in 1986, the band wasn’t allowed to play an encore. Afterwards the authorities forbade the band to ever play again, annulled the band’s tour bus license and terminated the band’s rehearsal room lease contract. Why? Well, metal is evil and all that jazz.
So you could call that bad luck, as probably multiple bands from the GDR had to go through that but it doesn’t stop there. The band illegally reunited several times after that and in the fall of 1989, shortly after singer Detlev Wittenburg was released from jail (for reasons unrelated to the band), they played two farewell concerts. Wittenburg commited suicide by hanging in December of 1989 and Macbeth broke up. They reunited in 1993 to play a couple of gigs, just to split-up again after the band’s drummer Rico Sauermann commited suicide by jumping from a house to his death.
You be the judge if you can attribute that to a curse or simply extremely bad luck. I for one don’t believe in curses, unless you consider Linkin Park a curse, but I can’t help but be fascinated by that coincidence.
Macbeth finally reunited in 2004 and released two albums since. Make the jump for a video of ‘Das Boot,’ a song off their latest release ‘Gotteskrieger.’
Six Chimaira Under
The new line-up for the coming European Six Feet Under tour has officially been announced. Matt DeVries, rhythm guitarist of Chimaira, will be playing bass on the upcoming tour and join fellow Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold and former Chimaira drummer Kevin Talley in SFU. So, three members of Chimaira’s selftitled line-up just joined Six Feet Under.
Apparently, they are currently rehearsing, including old Cannibal Corpse songs. Sounds great. I’m personally looking forward to the tour because I’ll see them live next Monday. Pictures of the band rehearsing and screenshots of the official announcements after the jump.
